Arif Peçenek

Arif Peçenek (10 October 1959 – 29 January 2013) was a Turkish football player and manager.

Born in Ankara, he began his club football career with the capital club Ankara Güneşspor in 1976.

Peçenek began his club football career with the capital club Ankara Güneşspor in 1976.

He was discovered in 1978 to the Turkish U-18 national team and completed four games.

Through these games, several teams were aware of him.

The second division Ankara Şekerspor reacted fastest and secured the services of the young goalkeeper before the 1979/1980 season.

The change has been reported in several newspapers and Peçenek found nationwide attention.

The reason for this considerable attention to a change was the extraordinary handling of the transfer.

In return for the release of Peçenek no money paid, but exchanging them for one Holstein Cattle from Ankara Güneşspor.

This curious trading took Peçenek himself with humor and said: "End of the season remains to be seen who will be more productive".

This transfer still considered as one of the seven most interesting transfers in the world.

For the summer of 1981 he moved to city rivals MKE Ankaragücü.

Peçenek spent 13 years under the roof of MKE Ankaragücü.

Currently, he remains as one of the ten players with the longest period in the club’s history.

In his first two seasons Peçenek had sat over the team captain and the goalkeeper Adil Eric is left with almost always on the bench.

Starting from the 1983/1984 season, he became the captain of the team, to be called as a legend and he escalated to the national team.

In the 1984/85 season Peçenek saw the highlight of his career.

In addition to his regular place in the number one the following three seasons proceeded to grow by Peçenek.

He was appointed to the Turkey national team and was part of the permanent players for the national team.

Within this period, he nominated for 13 times and inserted the number one for eight times.

In the summer of 1989/1990 season, he had a herniated disc surgery and missed almost a half season.

For the new season MKE Ankaragücü committed the Yugoslav goalkeeper Rade Zalad due to the surgery of Peçenek.

The ascended Peçenek-Zalad competition in the seasons of 1990/1991 and 1991/1992 has ended with the takeover of Peçenek.

Although, he had the number one position again in the 1992/93 season, he left after thirteen seasons MKE Ankaragücü in the cause of having troubles with the board.

He took over long parts of the number one position, and received the title of the most jersey capped goalkeeper with more than 200 caps in the MKE Ankaragücü history until his left in 1993.

The summer of 1993 Peçenek moved to second division İstanbulspor, although his 17 successful inserts, İstanbulspor missed the chance of promotion to the first division with the last match.

After working for İstanbulspor, he moved to the first division Adana Demirspor, and played just three games due to the injuries.

Prosperous goalkeeper continued to play respectively in Ankara Şekerspor, MKE Ankaragücü, İstanbulspor and Adana Demirspor until his retirement in 1995.

He successfully inserts 23 national team caps.

Peçenek who is associated with MKE Ankaragücü and perceived as one of the greatest players in the club's history inserts more than 200 caps for this club.

The summer of 1995, Peçenek ended his active career as a professional footballer.

After ending his football career, he moved into coaching specialist.

In 1999/2000 season Peçenek took over Türk Telekomspor as his first head coaching experience.

He supervised subsequently Körfez Belediyespor, Ankara Şekerspor and Kızılcahamam Belediyespor.

From 2005 to 2010, he held the Youth Academy Development Coordinator with the MKE Ankaragücü.

In November 2012, he was introduced for the TKI Tavşanlı Linyitspor.

He died on 29 January 2013 due to a heart attack in Ankara.

With 192 first division inserts Peçenek is in the list of players with most premier league inserts for MKE Ankaragücü in 13th place.

After ending his football career, he moved into coaching specialist.

He assisted in Vanspor, Adanaspor and again Vanspor the head coach Ali Osman Renklibay as an assistant coach.